Audio/video signal processing systems (such as, for example, the Time Tailor systems available from Prime Image, having its corporate headquarters in Chalfont, Pa.) are known for editing the entire audio/video program material to either reduce or expand program run time. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,153, which issued on Nov. 30, 1999 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,092,774, which issued on Aug. 15, 2006. Both U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,153 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,092,774 are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety to provide background information regarding the present invention.
A program or commercial break is often times pre-determined by the broadcaster. However, there are instances in which the broadcaster needs to make run time adjustments to the audio/video program material to meet specific traffic and play-out requirements. In these instances, broadcasters have suffered from not having an automated micro-editing time management solution that not only reduces or expands program run time to meet desired run length within a block of time, but also maintains synchronicity of embedded ancillary data, such as captions, subtitles and teletext, in the time-altered program material. As a result of this need, an automated micro-editing solution must support video, audio and ancillary data packets to be fully compliant with government rules and regulations to include captions, subtitles and other text-based data for the hearing impaired. The solution needs to dynamically time-adjust the audio and video program material, and also adjust and reassemble caption material based upon the time-altered audio/video program.